7 posts tagged “pets”
In an effort to give the pet-monsters more fresh water, I built a cat fountain rather like this one. The ready-made ones you can get from the pet store are expensive (starting at around $40) and have expensive filters to replace. This was a $10 pump and the filters are cheap, around $2/each and easy to find online or in any pet store. Plus, the premade ones get really bad reviews for reliability and ease of cleaning.
So far it's work out pretty good. Irix was the first to try it out, Harley next and the dog was last. Easy to clean: remove and rinse the pump, replace the filter once a month (depending on your pets), clean out the goldfish bowl and refill with fresh water. I swear they're all drinking more water now, which is good for them.
UPDATE: So this doesn't work well with our wood floors. :-( I've tried everything I can think of to keep the moisture away from the wood, but I think it splashes just a little. I guess it would be alright if we had linoleum or something, but that would just be awful. Unless it was tile. I like tile.
I never stop photographing my cats. I take pictures of them with my high-end Nikon that the spouse-unit got me for Christmas one year. I take video clips of them and quick snapshots with the tiny point-n-shoot I got a couple of months ago. No pose, no antic is too small or too insignificant to capture. And digitally, I don't throw a single one out, no matter how out of focus or bad the lighting.
Yes, I'm a little obsessed with it. I can only think how I might be with kids one day. But I have a reason for the insanity.
When Cookie died, I realized just how few pictures I had of her. One blurry, shaky shot of her as a black and white puppy. You can barely tell how she was all oversized paws and ears in it, how her elegant mask markings were so clearly defined in youth, before the grey set in. Another one of her posing face first for the camera. I call that one her mugshot or headshot, because she looks like the picture perfect husky in it. Another one around the same time of her from a distance, trying to eat a three-foot, eight-pound bone I roasted for her by broiling half of it in the oven at a time, since the whole thing wouldn't fit . One of the last few clear ones I have of her before she died was her posing in my sunglasses, completely unfazed. The last clear one ever was of her with Harley lounging next to her.
I will never make this mistake again. For every hundred loving moments spent with my 'little monsters', I have at least one semi-clear picture. I have at least one framed of them, and a few small picture books of them. I have hundreds digitally. When Harley, being the youngest in the house, finally leaves me, I will keep a framed picture of her on my desk, remembering all the comfort, joy and adventure she has brought me.
I finally got around to putting the hot pink Soft Claws on Harley. Poor thing has never really been thrilled with getting her nails trimmed, let alone the caps, and last night she was particularily upset with me. She's normally like a dog, following me from room to room, but yesterday after the caps, she would look at me in terror and run in the opposite direction. This morning she's much better, thank god.
Maybe this will save our furniture a bit. They've already ruined the pleather couch downstairs; we have a cloth cover on it now. We've also noticed scratch marks on the dining table legs, the little monsters. So hopefully, these and their new six-foot cat tree will make a difference.
Still, they look cute. I'm glad I went for the hot pink because, unlike the clear ones, I can see at a glance that none are missing yet.
I found a picture a couple of months ago, of my beloved husky. Thought I'd share it with you. And her old page on dogster.com.
You know your house is a soda-free environment when you open a rare
can lying around from the 4th of July and the cats come running to
sit and listen to the fizzing.
What's the best way to spend a rainy day?
Submitted by Vee.
Curled up with some knitting, a warm blanket, a hot mug of chocolate, coffee or buttered rum(!) and some Mazzy Star playing in the background. Fireplace and sleeping cats optional.
Ainsley lost a lot of weight while we were off in Denmark & Malaysia. I've been working on fattening her up recently with homemade biscuits and other treats. Her treat-of-the-week is what I like to call "Sweet Fat Balls":
1 lb ground chicken
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup sunflower oil
3 large garlic cloves
1 cup ground/milled flax seed
1 cup Bear Mush (ground red wheat)Blend the molasses, oil and garlic until garlic is pureed in. Mix ground flax seed and bear mush in a large bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of grain mix in a smaller bowl. Add molasses/oil mixture to grain mixture in larger bowl. Mix well, then add chicken. Mix completely, then roll into 2-inch balls. Toss in reserved grain mix and freeze in 5-7 ball portions for easy dispensing.
